MG: Initially, I think it was early skateboarding culture that turned me on to art in general. All the graphics that I saw on the skateboards and in the magazines as a child was really exciting to me at a young age.

In more recent years, I think it has been more just my friends like James Walsh, Jon Izen, Scott MacDonald or hobo divine, who are simply modest artists with the ability to produce super creative and appealing artwork without much effort. I think the hope to be able to one day create work with such an ease as they seem to is something that I aspire to.

As for animation, and I can probably credit a lot of my animation appreciation to Bob Jaques, who was a director of mine that really helped me understand a lot about the process and timing that I would of probably never caught on to if I hadn’t worked under him when I did.

r2c2

CF: Do you have any cool upcoming projects you can tell us about?

MG: Lots and lots and lots…I just recently left the industry and moved into a little studio space so I can devote myself to being a full time independent animator, so hopefully it will allow me the freedom to do a lot more of the projects I’ve been thinking about making but just never had the chance to do while working in commercial animation.

As for specifics, I’m not sure it seems like a good idea to claim what is going to come out before it’s actually finished, or even started… so we will just say that it is an exciting time for me, and more is in the works for sure.

kidsdrawing

CF: Do you have any haunted stuff?

MG: Nope, but I’ve attached a picture that I drew when I was a kid that is about as creepy as it gets.

Thanks, Mike!

You can check out “County Ghost: Episode 3” right here in this week’s episode of Channel Frederator.